We Listen to Music For More Than 4 1/2 Hours A Day, Nielsen Says

Americans are spending on average more than 4.5 hours a day (32.1 hours per week) listening to music, says Nielsen in releasing new data on music consumption. That marks a substantial rise from less than 4 hours a day last year, per the report, which attributes the increase to the role of tech devices in music consumption.

The average music listener uses 3.4 devices to engage with music each week, listening to a little more than 5 hours of music per day (35.7 hours per week). Those higher figures are for music listeners, rather than the population at-large, which averages 32.1 hours per week.

Among music listeners, Millennials are even more engaged: they use 3.8 devices during the typical week to listen, and average almost 40 hours per week.

Interestingly, music listeners who stream AM/FM radio are the most devoted listeners: they use 5.5 devices on average per week to listen to music, spending about 6 hours per day listening to music in some form.

Among the various devices used, music listeners favor smartphones (43.5%) the most, per the report, though many also use their PCs and laptops (36.6%) and TVs (23%) to listen to music.

Nielsen also points to the emergence of newer technologies: almost 1 in 10 listeners use specialized headphones, while more than 6% use voice-controlled devices. There’s reason to believe that voice-controlled devices will occupy a greater role in music consumption: research from comScore indicates that music streaming is one of the top use cases for smart speakers.

Meanwhile, previously-released data from Nielsen identifies a new trend: playlisting. Among Americans who stream music online, half self-curate playlists, while 35% use public playlists based on genres or moods. Some 38% agree that playlists are an important part of their streaming experience, and 44% love creating their own playlists when using streaming services.

About the Data: The data is based on an online survey conducted in August 2017 among 3,000 Gen Pop consumers ages 13 and older.